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Launched in 2014, StoryBites is a weekly feature from YS, featuring notable quotable quotes in our articles of this past week (see the previous edition here). This special series of compilations focuses on India’s COVID-19 struggle. Share these quotes and excerpts with your networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights.

See also our pick of Top Quotes of 2021 on Entrepreneurship, Investment, Digital Transformation, Storytelling, The India Opportunity, Pandemic Resilience, Failure Recovery, Design, and Art.

The pandemic helped people realise the importance of inclusive health. Now more than ever, people are focusing on holistic wellness with wholesome nutrition playing an integral part in physical and mental wellbeing. – Aarti Gill, OZiva

During the pandemic, we have seen people unable to go outside; besides old people left at the disposal of their house helps couldn’t acquire that service, people living alone were down with COVID, and were badly craving for home food. – Baibhav Agrawal, Padrea Global Services

The pandemic is making us take certain decisions for the wellbeing of ourself and family. – Sania Mirza

It was observed that the pandemic had affected specific groups in society concerning their psychological well-being. Two of them stand out, the first being women and the other being the LGBTQIA+ community. – Rakesh Sharma, AtEase

With the pandemic coming into the picture and our lives, it has disproportionately impacted the women taskforce around the world who had to lose their jobs at a much higher rate than men. – Aakanksha Bhargava, PMR

The market was getting back into shape but this third wave has again made us scared. – Neeraj Mishra

Even before the COVID-19 struck, the number of poor with income of $2 per day or less (in purchasing power parity terms) was a staggering 59 million, which since has more than doubled between 2020 and 2021 thanks to the pandemic-driven economic slowdown in the country. – Amit Bhatia, Aspire Impact

With the two deadly waves of COVID-19 hitting the country, the impact on MSMEs has been heavy with units forced to shut down, creating a crunch on resources, and rendering them highly vulnerable. – Vivek Agarwal, KPMG India

Raw material costs have shot up 30-50 percent in a year’s time while businesses are still trying to recover to pre-pandemic levels. – Hardika Shah, Kinara Capital

While the formal segments of the MSMEs have been able to take advantage of different government schemes like credit guarantee, those in the informal sectors do need effective intervention and holding of hand. – Deepak Sood, ASSOCHAM

The supply chain is a costlier affair after the recent inflations post-COVID. – Dharmishtha Goenka, Praakritik

Domestic travel is down from the second week of January by 30 to 40 percent while international travel is down nearly 50 to 60 percent. – Arun Bagaria, TravClan

2021 is the year of the census that was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the government needs to at least conduct a sample survey on orphans. – Poulomi Pavini Shukla, ‘ Weakest on Earth: Orphans of India’

The disruption caused by the pandemic in the last two years has immensely contributed to the expansion of education technology. – Ambrish Sinha, UNext Learning

Today, most people love the idea of getting products delivered to them and the pandemic has further accelerated this movement with “doorstep delivery” becoming a mantra for brands. – Kunal Mundra, CARS24

Games like Roblox and Minecraft are already the new social networks for GenZ. These are places where they meet and interact with each other. COVID-19 lockdowns have only accelerated this behaviour. – Anshul Rustaggi, Totality Corp

We have hired everyone virtually and have worked remotely since we began. Despite these challenges, we have managed to create the country’s largest newsletter during the pandemic. – Priyam Sharma, The Jurni

The performance of the Indian startup ecosystem in 2021 has proved the resilience and dedication by multiple startups across segments. – Debjani Ghosh, Nasscom

With the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, an increasing number of companies are implementing automation solutions and systems to be at par with their competitors and maintain their operational efficiency. – Vicky Jain, uKnowva

Many global organisations faced severe supply chain disruptions during COVID-19. This accelerated the trend towards reshoring of manufacturing, particularly in the US, to mitigate risk. – Nikhil Ramaswamy, CynLr

The Indian logistics sector has witnessed robust growth. In fact, it steadied post the onset of COVID-19 — courtesy the rising retail and manufacturing ecosystem in the country. – Karan Shaha, Vahak

The pandemic waves do impact travel temporarily but if we take a bigger picture there is clearly a shift happening from unbranded to branded mobility. – Kapil Raizada, IntrCity

The travel sentiment remains strong and this can be evidenced by the fact that many travellers are now planning to partake in revenge and leisure travel. – Rikant Pittie, EaseMyTrip

2021 was the best year for solar corporate funding as well as mergers and acquisitions since 2010. Financing activity bounced back strongly following a COVID-19-affected 2020. – Raj Prabhu, Mercom Capital Group

Services Export for April-December 2021 reached more than $178 billion despite the COVID-19 pandemic when the Travel, Hospitality & Tourism sectors were significantly down. – Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry

Cartoons help us, especially in these tough times of the pandemic, by putting a smile on our face. – VG Narendra, Indian Cartoon Gallery

COVID-19 led to a paradigm shift in consumer lifestyles. Overnight, our lives became centred on the home. – Ankit Gaur, Livpure

With people now spending a significant portion of their time at home, they are looking at revamping their home spaces. This holds very true even for Tier II and III cities. – Shezan Bhojani, Design Cafe

YS has also published the pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups’ as a creative and motivational guide for innovators (downloadable as apps here: Apple, Android).